Vacation Bible school (VBS) has long been a fixture on ministry calendars at most churches for decades. However, there have been changes in our culture that might be signaling a need for your church to rethink the shape of its summer outreach.
Recent decades have seen fewer VBS curriculum choices available to churches than ever. A handful of publishing giants such as Group and Gospel Light have mastered the art of consistently offering excellent and affordable VBS experiences to churches. And churches have rewarded them with their business.
The unexpected result is that it’s harder for churches to stand out in their communities. Each summer I scan my local newspaper and see dozens of churches offering the same two or three VBS programs each summer.
Don’t settle for good enoughJim Collins, in his book Good to Great (Collins Business, 2001), warns of the danger of settling for good at the expense of great. Standout curriculums allow several churches to do “good.” But unless yours is one of the larger and more resourced churches in your city it might be a mistake to offer VBS unless it’s at an exceptionally high level of excellence.
Back in the 1950s the average American family was intact and was able to live off the father’s income. Those days are no more. It is now not only socially acceptable for women to seek employment outside of the home, for many it is an economic necessity.
Volunteer experts Jonathan and Thomas McKee have identified young professional millennials and retiring boomers as being the demographics with the most volunteer time to invest in the church. However, the millennials are just entering the workforce and are generally not available to participate in a daytime VBS.
VBS is a volunteer intensive ministry. Conduct an internal audit to make sure that your church has the volunteer strength needed to provide a safe and relational VBS. Many churches who choose to continue with VBS are finding success by recruiting and training high school students to take key volunteer roles.
The economic impactThe changes in the economy not only impact the number of available volunteers but the number of children who can attend your outreach. More and more children are attending daycare and day camp during the summer months while their parents are at work.
The traditional VBS is a three-hour format and doesn’t cover the length of time needed for most childcare arrangements. VBS programs that don’t adapt to this reality are limited to only reaching children with one stay-at-home parent. Some churches have found success by offering full day camps and using VBS curriculum to drive their morning programming. Other churches have created partnerships with daycare centers and have children bussed to and from the center.
It would be a mistake to look at these culture shifts and decide that VBS is no longer a viable ministry. However, it is safe to say that the days of cookie-cutter children’s ministry is long gone. Our changing economy has changed the answer to that question. In general, parents no longer need a recreational program for their children that get them out of the house for a few hours while teaching them about God. Families need daycare.
But that’s the macro-view. What do the families in your community need? Visit census.gov to see what percentages of your families are single parents or two-working parent families. The higher the percentages are in your community the more you consider trading in half-day VBS programs for full day camps, or going in another direction altogether.
Determine your volunteer baseIt’s important to check your database to examine the volunteer culture of your church. Do you have a large body of stay-at-home parents, high school students and active retirees that can serve as the volunteer backbone of this ministry during the day?
Don’t give up on VBS if the size of your volunteer team seems anemic. Some churches have had success with evening “family VBS.” The evening hours alleviates the challenges of the working parent. The challenge of finding volunteers is reduced when parents attend VBS with their children.
One of the internal factors you need to watch to determine whether its right for your church to embark on a VBS this summer is to examine your congregation’s history with the outreach model. Every program has a lifecycle that begins with high vision, then moves through an institutional phase and then ends with disintegration.
Ask yourself, where would you rank your VBS program on this arc? If congregational excitement for VBS is still on the rise you will probably be able to overcome the cultural shifts that challenge VBS success. On the other hand, if decades of running VBS has made the program ho-hum to your congregation then it’s time to consider scrapping VBS altogether or changing the format in a way that rekindles interest and overcomes the challenges to its success.
Larry Shallenberger is an author and pastor of Next Generation Ministries at Grace Church, Erie, PA. [atgrace.com]
ALTERNATIVES TO VBS
Day camps: Host a five-day, day camp for children of working parents. Charge a reasonable tuition so you can afford to hire part-time staff.
VBS in the park: Scale down your vacation Bible school and host it at local parks in the community.
Backyard Bible clubs: You’ll face the challenge of children being in daycare, so host several early evening clubs in homes throughout your churches.
Family outreach: Busy families are struggling for time to connect with each other. Program picnics or “drive-in family movie nights” to that make it easy for families to spend time with each other.
Sports outreach: Offer a soccer or basketball league to the children in your community.
